Center for Advanced Study

January 31st: Neil Verma, “The Art of Amnesia: The Case for Audio Drama”

The Sound and Society Workshop is pleased to welcome Northwestern Professor Neil Verma, next Wednesday, January 31st from 4:30 – 5:50 PM in Logan 802.

Neil is an assistant professor of sound studies in Radio/Television/Film. He also serves as associate director of the MA program in Sound Arts and Industries and is the founder of Great Lakes Association for Sound Studies (GLASS).

Neil will present his two-part essay “The Art of Amnesia: The Case for Audio Drama,” which he is adapting for an upcoming monograph. Writes Neil:

This article examines what the relationship between audio drama and radio drama might illuminate about both forms. Drawing on some 40 podcasts and other audio forms that take a serial structure, I explore the rise of audio drama podcasts since 2015 and situate them in both a more recent historical context since the late 1990s and in a broader history stretching back to the first Golden Age of radio. By listening closely to key works on Serendipity, Homecoming and other podcasts, I argue that contemporary audio has profound potential to change both how we listen and how we relate to the sound media of the past.

Tom Gunning will serve as respondent. Tom is the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Art History, Department of Cinema and Media Studies, and the College.

A special note:From 6 – 7:30 PM after the workshop, Michael Gallope will be discussing his new book, Deep Refrains: Music, Philosophy, and the Ineffable at the Seminary Co-Op, in conversation with Sound and Society’s own Seth Brodsky.

Because many of our workshop-attendees will also want to attend Michael’s talk, we will be ending a little early so that everyone has time to walk across the Midway to the Co-Op Seminary. Neil’s workshop will also be fully catered so that attendees need not worry about grabbing dinner before or between presentations.